Just saw the film, and I wasn't really blown away by it. My main problem is the pacing, or the lack thereof, I mean I might be oversimplifying it, but it just feels like these scenes were thrown next to each other in a sort of chronological manner, and... that's it. It just goes on and on and there are no interesting changes in rhythm, in stakes, in whatever, it just... goes on. It was actually tiring to watch this for 4 hours. I hate when people are saying this, but this might be the first time I have to say it as well: there really could've been at least 30 minutes cut out of this. I mean, we could argue whether a filmmaker has an obligation to make a film accessible or enjoyable, and I'm pretty sure many people enjoyed it nevertheless, but this just wasn't a well-edited, well-structured movie for me. It's just so overly long and slow for no reason. I just didn't enjoy watching it.
Even if I thought there were very exciting things in there! I liked this new (or original) Steppenwolf, it made much more sense, I liked the whole Darkseid story, even these stupid Mother Boxes were redeemed in a way, that is all fine. And yeah, we could say that some of our heroes had expanded backstories and characters, but it just wasn't engaging on any level for me. Even the action scenes, which were much more detailed and made more sense than in the 2017 version, felt slow and dragging. I liked the Amazonian battle scene with Steppenwolf, it was a huge improvement over the original, but it was still so unnecessarily long. And this all comes down to pacing for me - I don't mind the actual length if the pacing helps me, as a viewer, get through it. But here it was just "here you go, these are the shots, watch them".
And also, is it nitpicking to point out how I was always forced to look at Gal Gadot's cleavage? And I thought it was Whedon's sexist idea to shoot the poor actress from all the sexist angles and stuff like that, but... this is all here as well.
All in all, I didn't mind the film, there were good and exciting ideas there, there were some good visuals, but sometimes it just felt so self-important with its length and slow-mo shots and singing Icelanders and video clip segments... I agree that it is a superhero film that feels and looks nothing like your average modern superhero film. It just feels exactly like a tiring Zack Snyder-film. Oh, and I really liked the 4:3 aspect ratio.
Even if I thought there were very exciting things in there! I liked this new (or original) Steppenwolf, it made much more sense, I liked the whole Darkseid story, even these stupid Mother Boxes were redeemed in a way, that is all fine. And yeah, we could say that some of our heroes had expanded backstories and characters, but it just wasn't engaging on any level for me. Even the action scenes, which were much more detailed and made more sense than in the 2017 version, felt slow and dragging. I liked the Amazonian battle scene with Steppenwolf, it was a huge improvement over the original, but it was still so unnecessarily long. And this all comes down to pacing for me - I don't mind the actual length if the pacing helps me, as a viewer, get through it. But here it was just "here you go, these are the shots, watch them".
And also, is it nitpicking to point out how I was always forced to look at Gal Gadot's cleavage? And I thought it was Whedon's sexist idea to shoot the poor actress from all the sexist angles and stuff like that, but... this is all here as well.
All in all, I didn't mind the film, there were good and exciting ideas there, there were some good visuals, but sometimes it just felt so self-important with its length and slow-mo shots and singing Icelanders and video clip segments... I agree that it is a superhero film that feels and looks nothing like your average modern superhero film. It just feels exactly like a tiring Zack Snyder-film. Oh, and I really liked the 4:3 aspect ratio.